International Etchells Class Association
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2017 North American Championship Concludes

published 08/22/2017


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After taking the lead yesterday at the Etchells North American Championship, Scott Kaufman and his team of Jesse Kirkland, Lucas Calabrase, and Austen Anderson closed out the series today to win the 2017 title.

After several contenders found themselves in the teens after the first race of the day, the stage was set going into the eighth and final race of the event. Kaufman’s lead had narrowed, but the chasing pack faltered again, and with Kaufman coming in second in the race, all questions were erased.

“We sailed really, really well,” said Kaufman. “We’ve been trying to improve our game for a long time. With a good group on the boat, things went our way. We had really nice starts, good boat speed and that helps with these tactics if you can get off the line really well.”

This is Kaufman’s first win of the Etchells North American Championship. “I am honored to be among the other people who are on that list. It’s amazing, a whole history of sailing has won this event. And we did it!”

Next for Kaufman is the Etchells World Championship in September in San Francisco. “It’s completely opposite conditions…it’s going to be breeze on up there. San Diego has very light breezes so we will take the boat up with different sails. We know our settings reasonably well in the breeze so we are going to practice then go up and race.”

Finishing ninth overall, Keith Whittemore ended the day as the top Corinthian boat with his team of Peter Busch, Brian Thomas, and Kevin Downey. Teams in the Corinthian division do not have any professional sailors on board.

“We are not professionals and there’s a lot of professionals in this fleet. There’s a lot of really good sailors. It is meaningful to us that we can compete with professional teams and that makes us proud of what we do. We come out and sail whenever we can.”

Whittemore traveled from Seattle to San Diego for this event. He claimed San Diego is a city with his preferred sailing conditions and SDYC as one of his favorite event venues.

“Part of the fun of San Diego is the tow out and tow back. You get an hour of either talking about sailboat racing or talking about life. It’s an enjoyable way to either wind up or wind down.”

Top three competitors overall in the Corinthian Division was Whittemore (60 points), Ted Hardenbergh (74 points), and Charlie Mann (128 points).

Racing was held August 17 to 19.

Overall Final Results (Top 10 of 29; 8 races, 1 discard)
1. Scott Kaufman / Jesse Kirkland / Alex Curtiss / Austen Anderson – 6 -3 -[15] -3 -1 -1 -9 -2 ; 25
2. Steve Benjamin / Michael Menninger / Dave Hughes / Ian Liberty – 2 -[10] -9 -8 -6 -2 -1 -10 ; 38
3. Argyle Campbell / Luke Lawrence / Brian Janney / Anton Schmid – 10 -1 -1 -1 -[17] -8 -11 -13 ; 45
4. Alex Camet / Ben Mitchell / Patrick Powell – 4 -2 -3 -6 -[18] -5 -18 -7 ; 45
5. Jim Cunningham / Jeff Madrigali / Mark Ivey / Serena Vilage – 11 -4 -7 -4 -3 -7 -13 -[17] ; 49
6.Eric Doyle / Payson Infelise / Ezra Culver – 3 -14 -4 -[26] -4 -10 -16 -3 ; 54
7. Shannon W Bush / Brad Boston / Phil Trinter – 7 -7 -[18] -14 -5 -9 -15 -1 ; 58
8. Don Jesberg / Bill Hardesty / Andrea Cabito / Robert Dean – 12 -9 -[26] -10 -11 -3 -5 -9 ; 59
9. Keith Whittemore / Brian Thomas / Kevin Downey / Peter Busch – [21] -6 -8 -5 -15 -12 -10 -4 ; 60
10. Tom Carruthers / Chris Busch / Willem Van Waay – 1 -[18] -12 -2 -10 -14 -4 -18 ; 61

Corinthian Final Results (11 teams; 8 races, 1 discard)
9. Keith Whittemore / Brian Thomas / Kevin Downey / Peter Busch – 60
14. Ted Hardenbergh / Jamie Hardenbergh / Mark Hardenbergh – 74
20. Charlie Mann / Bill Jenkins / Simon Garland – 128
21. Kjeld Hestehave / Chuck Hope / Rob Goddard – 128
22. Marc McMorris / Hart Jordan – 139
23. Dave Vieregg / James Hemmick / Carl Stahmer – 153
24. Xavier Sheid / J. C. Langlois / Lee Hope – 158
25. Patricia Stadel / Dick Denzler / Brian Burks – 161
26. Summer Greene / Ian Trotter / Marnie Buddo – 161
27. Michael Terry / Tom Stanford / Joe Markee – 170
28. Mat Johnson / Isao Toyama / Shane Wells – 176
29. Tarek Elsharhawy / Nora Elsharhawy / Adam Elsharhawy / Sammy Elsharhawy – 199